The ten men of Feltonmix Metro held out the youthful exuberance of Fox Tapes Mt. Wellington to go back to the top of the Bluebird Premier League on July 21, the home side triumphing 2-1 at Albie Turner Field.
Metro made the early play, with Willie Thompson whipping a shot past Nigel Kelly's near post in the eighth minute. Within two minutes, however, The Mount had had as many chances, both falling the way of Jared Medhurst. Grant Schofield saved his looping header, seconds after blocking with his legs at the striker's feet.
Kelly pulled off a top stop to deny John Van Dort's thumping twenty yard drive in the twelfth minute, but was beaten by a snorter from Neil Harlock eight minutes later. His 25-yard bullet screamed into the bottom corner of the net, after Carl Jorgensen had surged out of defence and, having noted the space being made to his left for Harlock to move into by the intelligent off-the-ball running of Steve Nickson and, particularly, Danny McHenery, slipped the ball into the path of his midfield colleague.
Barely a minute later, Metro were down to ten men. Jason Thompson and Sheik Sahib had been going for the ball, and both collided as it careered between the pair of them. The only thing that could have prompted referee Peter Budgen to brandish the red card in Thompson's face was the fact that he had his foot raised at the moment of impact - there certainly appeared to be no malice intended on the part of either combatant, and from the clubrooms side of the field, it certainly appeared to be a harsh decision.
Metro took a wee while to adjust to their numerical disadvantage, while The Mount took a similar amount of time to come to terms with the advantage the extra man offered them. Referee Budgen, meanwhile, took advantage of this lull in player creativity to leave all present wondering just what version of the Laws of the Game the Waikato Soccer Referees Association operates by!!
Some of his interpretations during this encounter had players, coaches and spectators alike completely bemused, and the sight of the yellow card being thrust skywards at regular intervals in the first half in particular did nothing to calm ruffled feathers. Needless to say, there were some rather pointed remarks directed towards the match officials in the after-match speeches.
Unfortunately, none of the trio chose to attend the traditional post-match function, which, regardless of peoples' opinions of their performance, is disappointing in itself - it certainly does little to help improve player - match official relations.
After Kelly had saved a venomous twenty-yarder from Nickson, and Schofield had again foiled Medhurst at the youngster's feet, the half ended with Willie Thompson stroking home from the penalty spot.
How this came about had everyone confused, but a polite half-time enquiry revealed that after Nickson had headed the ball towards goal, he had been taken out of play by a Mount defender. The ball had gone through to Kelly, who was in the process of clearing the ball upfield when the Metro striker went ballistic in the direction of linesman Kevin Ball, who had seen the incident yet had not made any signals towards referee Budgen regarding it.
Mr Ball soon raised his flag to attract Mr Budgen's attention, however, and the referee duly stopped play and went over to discuss matters with his assistant. The ferocity of Nickson's outburst had many thinking that the striker, who had already been booked, was being reported for the tone of his complaint, but within seconds, Mr Budgen had blown his whistle and was pointing to the penalty spot, much to the disbelief of, amongst others, Mount's 'keeper, Kelly.
To compound matters for the shot-stopper, as he fished the ball out of the back of the net and hoofed it back to the halfway line for the resumption, Mr Budgen blew the half-time whistle - he chose to add on the stoppages incurred in the first half to the end of the second spell - then booked Kelly for kicking the ball away as the players headed for the dressing rooms!!
Some words of wisdom from Clive Campbell at half-time saw Mt. Wellington taking full advantage of their numerical supremacy in the second spell, but too often their efforts foundered on the solidity of Metro's defensive trio, Shaun O'Mara, Stuart Mair and John Van Dort.
When they were beaten, however, there was always Schofield to keep The Mount at bay. He was called into action in the 48th minute to frustrate Jeff Campbell, and again four minutes later, this time pulling off a breathtaking fingertip save to foil Sahib's dipping twenty yard volley.
The Mount's concerted pressure paid off in the 62nd minute, however, Stu Roberts' shot being parried by Schofield straight into the path of Paul Bunbury, who stroked home a goal which the ground announcer initially declared an equaliser - Mr Budgen's end-of-first-half antics had even confused those burdened with menial tasks!!
Mount kept pressing for an equaliser, but it was Metro who went close next, only for Kelly to pull off a blinding double-save. A clever run by Jorgensen drew the defence, and allowed him time to turn and chip the ball back into the middle for Van Dort. His 72nd minute header bulleted goalwards, only for Kelly to instinctively flick it to safety, then recover in time to race across his goal and deny Thompson the chance to convert the rebound - goalkeeping at its very best.
Kelly's clearance saw the ball flicked on by Roberts into Sahib's path. His close control was very good, but his instinctive twenty yard lob was better still. Schofield was reduced to spectating as the ball soared over his head, then dipped to crash against the top of the crossbar and bounce back into play - the effort deserved better.
Van Dort replied in kind two minutes later, his header rattling The Mount's crossbar following  a Harlock corner. Then Kelly pulled off another top drawer stop to foil Thompson, whose devious run and wicked curling shot from thirty yards had 'top corner' written all over it as it sped goalwards.
The last ten minutes or so was virtually all Mt. Wellington, as they battered away at Metro's defence in search of an equaliser. But try as they might - Medhurst came closest, again foiled by Schofield - they weren't to be successful, although to say Metro were rattled would be the understatement of the evening!
It's not often you see the home side adopting 'hit it anywhere' tactics when clearing their lines, while their professional approach towards the use of any time that was available to them in the closing stages, given their circumstances - 2-1 up, down to ten men and hanging on for the final whistle - was perfectly understandable, even though such tactics do nothing for the image of 'The Beautiful Game'.
In the end, Metro got the result they wanted, and the outcome they sought, in terms of returning to first place in the league table. But The Mount, for whom this was the second game of seven in a demanding fifteen-day spell, will probably feel they were worthy of a share of the points at the finish, particularly in light of the circumstances surrounding what proved to be the winning goal.

Metro: Schofield; Van Dort, O'Mara, Mair, J. Thompson (sent-off, 21); W. Thompson, Curties (booked, 38), Jorgensen, Harlock; McHenery, Nickson (booked, 24) (Beckham, 50).

Mount: Kelly (booked, 45); O'Neill (Angove, 81), Patterson, Buhagiar; Kenyon, Campbell, Medhurst, Bunbury (booked, 73), Roberts; Sahib (O'Rourke, 90), Williams (booked, 37).

Referee: Peter Budgen

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